The National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers include five indicators that educators should follow in order to be successfully integrating technology into their own classroom. (ISTE, 2012) After reading the indicators I have chosen two to take a closer look at and create GAME plans to build my confidence in so I can better integrate technology into my classroom. The first indicator that I have chosen to create a GAME plan for is to design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments. I feel that although I do integrate technology in my classroom to enhance my instruction, I often do not bring it into my assessment as often as I could. The second indicator that I have chosen to create a GAME plan for is to engage in professional growth and leadership, I chose this indicator because I feel that with my knowledge and background in technology I could help my school district by lending myself to other teachers to help inform them of the different uses of technology.

First, my GAME plan to design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments is vital to successfully creating a 21st century learner because this area is what helps promotes independent and self-directed learners. My goal is to create a unit in mathematics where students have a much more hands-on learning experience involving technology and a real world issue. I believe that setting this goal will engage students in a digital-age learning experience and provide me with an opportunity to incorporate technology in my assessment tools. I think an appropriate unit for this goal would be a budgetary unit where students are given a certain budget and then they must use the technology in order to complete their task. Students will be able to research items, calculate costs, inquire about services, and then use the technology to then display their project in an easy to read way. To make sure my students are engages and actively a part of this project, they will have the opportunity to decide what event they are planning for. I believe that giving my students this part of the project as their own will really engage students because it will be something that they’re actually interested in. Throughout the unit I will continue to assess my students in a formative assessment style. I will check students’ progress and provide feedback and guidance so that they are able to better adapt their budget and research to be successful. The way that I evaluate my goal is by assessing my students’ final project and seeing if they were able to successfully use technology to solve real-world issues in mathematics.

My second GAME plan will be designed to engage in professional growth and leadership. Throughout my time at Walden University I have gained a vast knowledge of technology and how to successfully incorporate it in a classroom. I also believe that I have a good background knowledge of technology that some of my colleagues do not have. I would like to set a goal to provide assistance to those that need help and also help develop workshops for my fellow teachers to see the benefits of integrating technology into their own classroom. Another thing that I believe will be very beneficial as a goal would be to begin grant writing to acquire more technology in our school. My school district is very behind in technology. We have recently received a few SMART Boards, which were placed in some language arts classrooms without providing any training because they felt that that is the topic where students need the most work immediately. Although I agree that language arts is a difficulty of our school district, I’m not sure that I agree with placing SMART Boards in those classrooms without any type of training is beneficial for the teachers or the students. This useful tool is now not being utilized in a proper way because of the lack of training. I would like to go to SMART Board and other technology workshops so that we are better able to use this technology and actually show growth on our test scores.

I believe that these two goals will positively affect my teaching, classroom, and school. My students will be able to see how real-life technology and mathematics are. Hopefully with my goal of grant writing to acquire new technology will provide my school district with the technology that they desperately need to become a 21st century school.

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I enjoyed reading how you plan to use technology into your math class. I think your lesson is one that will spark interests and keep them motivated. I find my third graders like to use the computer to find things and allowing yours this real – world experience will not only help them develop math and technology skills but hopefully teach them responsibility skills that will last a life time. These types of skills do not come from a text-book; but from good planning and caring teachers

I agree that educators sometimes have to take the lead in acquiring new technologies for our schools, and it is a shame. Our school district has finally bought into the Smart Board program and by the end of this year every teacher in my school will have one. Even though this may sound great to you, who only have a few in your school, we are behind other school districts in the area that have had them for years. I agree with you that it is important for teachers to understand the technology they are expected to integrate into their lessons. For three years we had only three Smart Boards in our school. The district offered classes to help learn some of the functions of the Smart Board and our school technology specialist still comes out to work with us on them. I believe anytime a new program is offered by the district they should (immediately or before the boards are installed) offer teachers training in how to use them. I have heard many teachers use them strictly for projector screens because they do not know what they can do. If you have access to one, check out Smart Exchange. It is loaded with pre made lesson plans and activities so you do not have to start from the beginning, especially this late in the year! Good luck with your GAME plan!

I really like your idea of the budget, I have tried this before but it has been a few years. A suggestion that could really lead into some deeper research, is to assign jobs that pay different salaries. Students could then research what type of education is needed for that particular job and then what colleges offer the necessary education.

A problem that I did run into with the budget is when students ran out of money and did not care to try to fix the problem.

For use with technology, what type of tools will you use? Are you going to have the students use some type of online budget tool? I am curious about what types of tech tools could be used.

I really like your second goal. Training is something so many teachers need but don’t get. The younger generation of teachers have grown up with technology but many teachers are like me and did not grow up with technology and are still very intimidated but what resources could be available. Technology is only as useful as it is used, and that is where training is so very important. Excellent goal to be willing to help others.

Judy- I completely agree with you. Hopefully our school district will offer some type of training in the future.

Sean – Thank you for the input! I haven’t done a budget activity before so I’m glad you brought up some issues that you have seen. I was planning on using excel to show students how to set up a spreadsheet for spending and show them how to input equations. I was also thinking of using the internet as a guide for planning. They could research activities, services, and other items that they needed to get the best price on different websites. I also saw some really fun and interactive games the kids could play to get them interested in budgeting on this website: http://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/games/. I will definitely begin to research to make sure my GAME plan is successful!
Thanks!

Jillian,
I really liked your idea for your first goal. I think that incorporating technology into our assessments is vital to creating 21st century experiences for our students. I like that your activity was easily adaptable to meet students needs, likes, dislikes, and tastes. It is very authentic and will lend itself to future activities and experiences. I like that you used a budget idea and really hit multiple content areas.
It sounds like your school needs a technology leader. It is frustrating when schools and districts buy equipment and then there is a lack of knowledge, motivation, and desire to implement it. I have a Smart board and love it! I was offered a training but have really discovered most by engaging in self directed learning and taking the time to explore the capabilities of the Smart board. I think it would be rewarding for you having been through this degree program, to take an active role in your schools technology. I think using public resources is fantastic and I know a lot of companies offer grants and funding to help build technology. One company that used to offer a grant was Best Buy. I contacted the area manger and they were able to get me the information I needed. It’s worth a try.

These are the exact same two that I chose for myself. I have a hard time creating assessments, so this is definitely an area that I would like to improve upon. I really like your idea of using such a real-world problem. We have been hearing that this is what we want our students to be able to do, solve real-world problems. I love that you are giving them choices and are allowing them to discover things on their own.
As for your second GAME plan, like I said, I too want to help others in my district with technology using the information gained through this course. I really like how you are interested in writing a grant to help your school acquire more technology. However, like you stated, without the proper training, that technology is not going to be used effectively. It is going to take time for teachers to be trained properly and unfortunately, it always seems like training is something that our schools lack. Plus, we always seem to be playing catch up and it seems that by the time we finally figure something out, another new thing is introduced to us to learn about. So we as educators have to take some initiative to persue that knowledge ourselves. That is one of the reasons that I chose this Masters program. I want to help lead my school during this educational transformation along with you!